tow capacity

[SCPO]

I have a 1999 2500 extended cab long bed. Everything in the manual I have only gives gvwr and gcvwr for the gas engine. This will be our first R/V. We are looking at toy haulers. For carrying our two full dressers. Any suggestions on size of toy hauler and wether to go 5th wheel or tow behind would be greatly appreciated. Have towed many boats up to 25 feet. Thanks for any and all help. The R/V sales people in some cases are less than helpful.

 

[mvaughn]

With a 2500 truck you have some options on the size of trailer. For my 2 cents I would go with a 5th wheel as a first choice. Depending on where you plan to go a trailer over 30' could limit what camp grounds you can get into. I would also try and pick a trailer with a smooth surface exterior. The windows and doors will fit better and you have less chance of leaks that can lead to wall damage. While looking the trailer over look under the wheel well and see if it's metal or some type of fabric covering wood. Don't work with a salesperson that says you can tow anything with a 3/4 ton truck. Lots of floor plans to pick from. Good Luck

 

[CKelley1]

defiantly the 5th wheel. i have never worried about gvwr or gcvwr, we have a fleet and haul heavy it is not uncommon for us to be 1. 5x gcvwr. the driver is the important part. install your 5th wheel and test pull the trailer you are interested in a few miles to see how you like it. now is the time to buy , there is bargains every where

 

[HBarlow]

I'm going to be a little more cautious than the previous posters. A Ram 2500 is capable of "pulling" any trailer you hook up to but not necessarily safely. You only have approximately 2000 to 2500# of cargo carrying capacity on the rear axle of a 2500 before you exceed the rated maximum weight. Check the VIN tag in your door frame. It provides the front GAWR, rear GAWR, and total GVWR of your truck.

Your rear tires are rated at approximately 3000 to 3500# if they are OEM size tires so your rear axle cannot be safely loaded beyond 2 x tire capacity or approximately 6,000#.

Weigh your truck and each axle on a certified scale loaded with normal passengers, tools, fuel, and whatever else you will carry for extended trips then add 150 pounds for the fifth wheel hitch. Subtract that total from the rear axle's GAWR. The result tells you how much rear axle load your truck can safely carry.

A fifth wheel travel trailer is designed and built to put 15% to 20% of its loaded weight on the kingpin. A normal travel trailer will weigh very close to its maximum GVWR printed on its VIN tag when it is loaded for travel. Simple math will show you that a trailer with a GVWR of greater than 12,000# will overload your rear axle.

Your truck IS capable of towing a small to medium-sized light weight toy hauler which probably means up to about 30'. Less might be better.

RVing websites and websites like TDR are full of posters who tell you you can tow anything with your truck and the manufacturer's weight ratings are "only guidelines" that mean little. An overloaded truck tire that fails when towing at highway speeds WILL cause total loss of control. Loss of control could result in a roll-over with trailer or crossing into oncoming traffic and colliding with a car traveling in the opposite direction. I don't overload tires when towing.

You are wise to be suspicious of, even ignore anything an RV salesman tells you. He is motivated to get you to hand over your check or sign on the bottom line and go away with a trailer.

 

[Grizzly]

I totally agree with Harvey and I also agree with mvaughn in that a 5th wheel is the best way to go. Tell us more about your truck. Is it a 4WD, 5 speed standard or auto.



For a first time RV owner, I'd go with a smaller unit, maybe 24' to 28'. You can always move up to a larger unit as the need arises and you get a heavier truck.



Besides making a choice on a 5er, you need to make the most intelligent choices on Hitch, Brake Controller and Tires for the 5er.

 

[icman95]

Ditto the 5er. We have a KZ 33ft toyhauler for our full dress HD and it works out perfectly. While the cargo bay can take two bikes, I'm not sure it's wide enough for 2 dressers. Maybe one and a smaller bike. But that will vary from trailer to trailer as we had fold up couches installed on the walls of the cargo bay that take up some room widthwise. When we are not using it to move our bike, the cargo bay is a great additional room for anything we want to bring and it also acts as a sun room when the ramp door is down.



While the mighty Cummins is great, two dressers on a toyhauler will weigh it down some. You will definately notice the weight. I would be careful about going too big with the trailer esp. since you have a 2500, not a dually. Maybe go up to 30' or so, just like was mentioned above. Just because the engine can pull it, doesn't mean the rest of the truck can handle it-brakes, suspension, etc. You might want to consider some mods to the truck.

 

[THoltz]

I have a 1999 2500 extended cab long bed. Everything in the manual I have only gives gvwr and gcvwr for the gas engine. This will be our first R/V. We are looking at toy haulers. For carrying our two full dressers. Any suggestions on size of toy hauler and wether to go 5th wheel or tow behind would be greatly appreciated. Have towed many boats up to 25 feet. Thanks for any and all help. The R/V sales people in some cases are less than helpful.

This copy/paste below is out of the Ram Buyer's Guide which is provided (I think) in this website home page. These ratings are for the 1999 model year and can be found on page 7 of the buyers guide. It might give you an idea on what you can tow. Here ya are:



Maximum Tow Ratings:

All confi gurations and axle ratios of manual transmission

trucks: 20,000 GCWR.

All confi gurations of automatic transmission trucks: 3. 54

axle 16,000 GCWR, 4. 10 axle 18,000 GCWR.

Note: Maximum permissible trailer weight will vary by model

and options. For example, 4x4 models are rated for lower

maximum trailer weights than 4x2 models, and extended/

quad cab models are rated for lower maximum trailer

weights than standard cab models. Highest trailer weight

rating is for a 2500 regular cab 4x2 manual transmission

long bed = 14,150 pounds trailer.

Lowest trailer weight rating is for a 3500 quad cab 4x4

automatic transmission 3. 54 axle = 9,050 pounds trailer.

 

[SBeretz]

Check out the toy haulers that you like and the floor plans you like, then start pouring over the websites to get an idea of what you are going up against. Like the others said, you don't want to grossly overload your truck, but they were modestly stickered for your year of trucks. I would look into the 28-35ft trailers, and preferably the triple axles. With the triples you will keep more of the weight on the trailer is balanced properly, plus, it gives you another set of brakes. A set of air bags, good E rated tires and an exhaust brake would be my first additions to the truck if you do get a 5th wheel, plus the brake controller, would make your driving experience alot nicer. I am sure your truck has the power to pull about anything, so look at weight handling mods that will make your driving more enjoyable. Scotty

 

[ewcmr2]

An overloaded truck tire that fails when towing at highway speeds WILL cause total loss of control.

NOT. As long as you don't panic, loss of a single tire isn't that big of an event.



Don't slam on the brakes or add wild steering inputs. If you look for a ditch, tree, or oncoming semi that's where you'll end up. Look for a safe place to pull over and gently drive to it.

 

[Midnite]

A set of air bags, good E rated tires and an exhaust brake would be my first additions to the truck if you do get a 5th wheel, plus the brake controller, would make your driving experience alot nicer.

To that list I'd add upgrading the truck's rear brakes with 3" shoes and larger wheel cylinders with 1 3/16" bores from a mid-90's GMC/Chevy K3500.



Mike

 

[KFranco]

NOT. As long as you don't panic, loss of a single tire isn't that big of an event.



Don't slam on the brakes or add wild steering inputs. If you look for a ditch, tree, or oncoming semi that's where you'll end up. Look for a safe place to pull over and gently drive to it.

I'm not so sure about your statement. I had a moderate leak in my passenger rear pulling about 7500lbs trailer. The more the tire lost pressure the harder it was to maintain control. Soon I began fishtailing like crazy and had to pull over to see what the heck was going on. I would hate to be surprised by losing the tire in a blowout. Perhaps you are refering to one of the tires on your DRW truck blowing out. You atleast have another unlike those of us with SRW.

 

[HBarlow]

NOT. As long as you don't panic, loss of a single tire isn't that big of an event.

Don't slam on the brakes or add wild steering inputs. If you look for a ditch, tree, or oncoming semi that's where you'll end up. Look for a safe place to pull over and gently drive to it.

I read your post earlier today and decided to think about it awhile. I was torn between simply ignoring such a misguided post or reacting, possibly with emotion.

After thinking about it some I decided it is simply to eggregiously WRONG to simply ignore. The original poster has the absolute right to believe anything he chooses and even to post it. Those of us who know better will simply roll our eyes and ignore it but the danger is that some members and even some non-members with little or no towing experience may not know better and may believe it to the detriment of their safety and that of their familys.

Hundreds of ordinary motorists die each year on the highways of America when they suffer a blown tire on a simple car towing nothing. To say that loss of a tire on a light truck towing a heavy trailer is "not that big of an event" is very wrong and dangerous advice to give.

I hope other readers ignore your post and are wise enough to realize you probably have limited experience towing a heavy trailer and have not experienced a tire failure.

 

[ewcmr2]

I couldn't find the old video of Car&Driver testing tire blowouts on Ford Explorers (Circa 2000, the suv many people were flipping into ditches after a tire failure) showing that vehicles don't automatically go turtle after a tire failure.



Police tire failure test, YouTube - Police Blowout clip



Guy driving down the freeway (some bad language),

YouTube - Blow Out



Dodge Ram with no front tire,

YouTube - BAD DRIVER 4 miles FLAT TIRE



Now that you've seen a tire failure doesn't HAVE to be a big event lets think about it.

Newtons 2nd. An object in motion tends to stay in motion until acted apon by an outside force. A truck driving straight down the highway will continue to go straight until something forces it to turn. When a tire blows (or has too low pressure) it's rolling resistance goes up which can have a small effect and induce a pull to one side. A tire can't store enough energy to radically alter the path of a vehicle.



When a tire blows the weight it (and the tire diagonal from it) was carring is transferred to the tires across from it and the tire ahead/behind it. So now you're driving along with most of the weight of the vehicle on two good tires -that now have more grip- to keep you in control.



I should have said "loss of a single tire doesn't have to be that big of an event". If an ordinary driver jerks the steering wheel to the right (inducing yaw) and then applies heavy braking (more yaw) and doesn't correct for the over-reaction inputs then a single tire blow out will turn into a very big event.



Back on topic; buy a trailer that is within your trucks rated limits, drive within your comfort level, scale your truck/trailer to get the weight distrubution correct (fishtailing trailers are usually too light in the nose). My 3/4ton Cummins was rated to pull my 36' race trailer but the single rear tires made for a "squishy" feeling rear end so I traded up to my dually.



As to my experience... The worst thing to happen to me due to a tire failure has been destroyed fenders/RV bay doors. My wife, my son and I all have SCCA national championships to our credit (you have to drive to a lot of big events to win the really big ones!) and I'm 15minutes from heading to the airport to fly to Marina CA to instruct at a Evolution Performance driving School.



Eric

 

[HBarlow]

I didn't bother to review the links provided because I can easily guess at the point they were intended to make. Sure, a skilled driver behind the wheel of a car that experiencing a tire failure can probably drive through it and slow gently. But, and this is a large BUT, the tests apparently used cars or SUVs as their subject . . . not pickup trucks towing a heavy trailer.

Your Newton's Law explanation also completely overlooks the obvious point of this thread which is towing heavy with an overloaded Class 2 truck. The trailer being towed can easily push the tow vehicle out of line if a tire failure occurs on the tow vehicle.

I will agree that a blown tire is not absolutely going to result in a disaster but if it occurs on a single rear wheel truck when pulling a heavy trailer, with even a slight sidewind, on a high crowned roadway, or on even a very gentle curve, chances are very good a total loss of control will result. It is certain that a disastrous end will result if the driver is inexperienced or simply panics and tries to steer or brake.

My main point is it is far too serious an issue to be ignored when chosing a tow vehicle, trailer, towing equipment, or when making vehicle maintenance decisions such as tire replacement and much too dangerous to dismiss as "no big deal. "

As a skilled race driver you should understand better than the average motorist how dangerous the situation addressed in this thread can be to a less skilled driver.